These Days

I must say I have been staying quite busy so far in the new year.   Aside from plenty of work in the same old routine, here's what I have been up to.

Soaking at Baños.  I can't think of a better way to start the year than with a long, relaxing (and crowded) soak in thermal pools.

Karen, post-soak.

Ancient Ruins.  Ingapirca is Ecuador's best example of pre-Columbian ruins and its only public Inca structure.  I'm not sure if the more than 5 hour round-trip bus journey is worth the day trip from Cuenca that everyone recommends, but it is an interesting site nonetheless. The lingering fog added a certain mystique and those Incas sure could put some stones together.

See what I mean about those stones?

This is the big picture of Ingapirca.

 

A Cálculo.  Cálculo means kidney stone in English, which is what Will had.  He suddenly got sick, had an emergency visit to the doctor, and bravely faced surgery to remove it in a foreign health care system.  Mom and I watched the whole surgery on TV in the waiting room from the perspective of the tiny camera that went inside, I interpreted Will's medical history immediately after the operation before the anesthesia completely wore off, and I learned lots of new vocabulary including kidney, bladder and operating room.

Doesn't he look better?

Epiphany.  Celebrated January 6, Epiphany is the commemoration of the Magi's visit with the baby Jesus.  Here in Cuenca, one of the major avenues in town shuts down in the morning to prepare for the evening Epiphany parade.  Children and adult attendees and participants dress up in costumes as anything from butterflies to rock stars, athletes, and devils.  The correlation between Epiphany and this celebration remains unclear to me.

Cleansing.  I figured the new year was a better time than any to get my first cleansing.  My cleanser beat me all over with a wad of flowers and plants while lowly chanting and pausing every so often to press the bundle of vegetation into my nose for a long, unavoidable whiff. She ended by rolling an egg around me and pouring some liquid in my hands and topped the whole thing off with a smudge of ash on my face.

Cuy.  I finally did it and tried the cuy, or guinea pig.  Uncle Buck and Mary Ann, let your influence on my traveling taste buds be known; I am trying all kinds of new dishes. While cuy was not my favorite, it was better than I expected and I am now prepared to respond to the frequent queries about which local dishes I prefer most.  The night after our cuy feast, we dined in an American-owned restaurant and that fresh salad, fish, and asian-sesame slaw couldn't have tasted better.

Notice those curled up little hands.  I ate its left arm.